I've alwats taken dried potato powder on multiday walks for at least a third of night meals and up till last year, I could buy it at the supermarket. I can't remember who made it - Edgell I think. It's apparently no longer available. Yes I could dry my own of course and may have to in future but the commercial stuff was no bother. Does anyone know if you can still get this product?

You can get "potato flakes" at a lot of health food shops. These are much the same thing, but without all the extra rubbish added to them. In fact, you may want to add your own salt or butter, etc. They're great.

Thanks everyone. Your comments made me go back to Coles and practically insist they find it for me. I forgot the magic word -Deb! by Continental. Mashed potato and onion of course There it was, the only packet stuff in a sea of canned food.

keithy wrote:I've been meaning to try it out (hot and cold) on walks, and last week bought the Continental - Deb variety in the 100g bag. It's pretty good, quick and not bad cold. And doesn't use much water.

Deb with Onions is the best. Can't understand why you would to eat it cold for want of 500ml of hot water. Hard to believe it reconstitutes properly in cold water either.

RonK wrote:Can't understand why you would to eat it cold for want of 500ml of hot water. Hard to believe it reconstitutes properly in cold water either.

The guy I met didn't carry cook kit. Only had titanium pot/mug and ate cold food. I offered to share some of my dehy hot meal with him and he declined, but he did enjoy a hot cuppa though.

I've only tried the Deb standard one, and it is ok with cold water, but takes more stirring to get there (and maybe a bit more water than when hot). Not as nice as hot, but it works. I'm just wondering if the Coles one tastes as nice, or is bland. I'm going to look for some of those potato flakes as well to try them out.

Really just seeing what I can use if I have a cook kit failure when out. I have some ready to eat meals which are nicer hot, but have eaten them cold as well, and they were fine. And I normally eat cooked oats for brekky, but am trying cold oats (left in covered pot overnight) with some dehy fruit thrown in.

I did notice last week that Woolies here seem to have de-stocked the Edgell Instant Mash, and now only have Deb Haven't tried it out yet.

Since buying instant mash for camping trips, I've started using it as a thickener for stews & casseroles occasionally. Much easier than flour, doesn't go so lumpy. Someone also told me (a qualified chef) that it makes better tuna patties than actual mashed potato.

My "comfort" meal when bushwalking is: dehydrated peas - added to water when cold; bring water to boil; simmer peas for a couple of minutes, then add to instant mash. Stir in one or two triangles of Laughing Cow cheese. Pure stodge, warming and guaranteed to fill you up!

Eremophila wrote:My "comfort" meal when bushwalking is: dehydrated peas - added to water when cold; bring water to boil; simmer peas for a couple of minutes, then add to instant mash. Stir in one or two triangles of Laughing Cow cheese. Pure stodge, warming and guaranteed to fill you up!

Another good option is instant couscous. There are many choices on the supermarket shelves, and it can also be flavoured with stock or soup mix and enhanced with foil packed fish or Jack Links beef jerky nuggets.

Haha.. I'm still putting too much water in for cold overnight oats though - I'm trying to gauge how much less water to add than when cooking the oats.

But back to the powdered mash - when adding hot water, I also put dehy peas into the boiling water before mixing the hot water into the powdered mash. For water I'm using 1.5 the amount of powdered mash and it works out ok, but when adding peas I have to go around 2 times the amount of water to powdered mash. Then I add black pepper which I carry a small ziplock bag of, and some cut up chunks of my diy jerky (more like biltong though).

walk2wineries wrote:Reminds me sometimes Aldi has very good buys on Jerky; wasn't bad.

They had that again the other week when they had their South African food theme. I bought 5 packs of their Mr Biltong again!

Eremophila wrote:My "comfort" meal when bushwalking is: dehydrated peas - added to water when cold; bring water to boil; simmer peas for a couple of minutes, then add to instant mash. Stir in one or two triangles of Laughing Cow cheese. Pure stodge, warming and guaranteed to fill you up!

Slice and sear salami in pot, get some oil out flowing around the pot. Add water to pot and bring to boil. Throw in dehy chopped tomato and seaweed. Add herbs to liking. Once boiled add deb. Very little fuel used.

Very easy to make too. I just cook up a pot of mashed potato with some stock powder, milk, parmesan and plenty of butter! Sometimes I also add powdered milk to the mix. Then we dehydrate and put it in a food processor to make a fine powder.

It can rehydrate with cold water, but it takes a long time and lots of stirring. We usually heat some water (not to boiling) and add the hot water into the ziploc of powder, leave it to sit for 20mins in a pot-cosy and give it a squish every now and then. On the track, we usually eat it with homemade dehydrated chilli con carne and add fresh cabbage/brocoli/tomato. Yum.